Think back to those nostalgic days when the
Republicans pretended they were fighting to "reduce the size of the
federal government." I don't know about you, but they had me hook, line
and sinker. I really believed in them. It was maddening that with all the
effort and energy we spent trying to rein in the growth of the federal
government, it only continued to grow (up over a million federal employees
since 1999!). But we hung in there with the Republicans, failure after
failure, because we were sure the Democrats were the reason nothing was ever
accomplished.

Well, it turns out that "big
government" was never the real problem. It also turns out the Republicans
had no more intention of "reducing the size of government" than the
Democrats did. All the talk and all the partisan fights were just a diversion
to keep us preoccupied, while the real damage was being done behind the scenes.

There is no doubt our federal government is a
huge problem that has grown into an enormous behemoth, chewing up the last few
remaining pieces of our freedom. And there can be no argument that our
government has gotten bigger every year, no matter which faction within the
one-party system is in charge. But, big government is not the problem. Big
government is only a symptom of the problem.

The real problem is that we are being ruled by a group of elitist
politicians who absolutely refuse to obey the law. We can fight the symptoms
all we want, but until we deal with the core issue - that lawbreakers are
ruling our nation - we have no chance of getting this mess straightened
out.

There are so many of our leaders breaking the
law on a continual basis that our government has come to more closely resemble
a criminal enterprise than it does a legitimate government. And whenever
lawbreakers rule a country, chaos and loss of freedom will always result. Exploding
budgets, tyrannical courts, rampant abortion, undeclared wars, elaborate income
transfer schemes, a debased currency, $450 billion a year deficits and a
burgeoning federal police state are only the most obvious indications that
we are being swindled out of the very lifeblood of our country.

How have we gotten ourselves into this
situation? It is because we have allowed criminals and lawbreakers to rule us.

The very first sentence of the Constitution
essentially defines the entire structure of our government. "All
legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of
Representatives." The rest
of the Constitution lays out "All the legislative powers" in great
detail, which consist of the limitations and restrictions that were to be
placed on the federal government. It is obvious that our founders were
determined to grant Congress only very limited, narrowly defined powers.

How far we have veered off that path!

The powers vested to Congress are specific,
non-ambiguous and were intended to be a comprehensive enumeration of the powers
of Congress. They were not intended to be a set of guidelines or a list
of suggestions. The limitations of power were designed into our government
because the framers of the Constitution were very aware (with brilliant
foresight) that power consolidated at the federal level would lead to an
eventual loss of our freedom.

Please take a moment to look at a summary of
the vested powers of Congress. Aside from these, Congress has no other powers. All
other powers belong to the states and the people. Any encroachment by the
Congress into state and individual powers (which is nearly everything
they do!) is an illegal usurpation of power.

Congress has the vested power to:

· Provide for the common defense · Raise, fund and regulate the Army and the Navy · Borrow money on the credit of the United States · Declare war · Approve treaties, Cabinet-level appointments, and appointments to the
Supreme Court (Senate only) · Regulate the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court · Impeach (House only) and try (Senate only) federal officers · Introduce Constitutional amendments, call a convention · Override presidential vetoes · Regulate commerce with foreign countries and between the states · Establish rules for citizenship · Coin money and regulate the value of currency, determine punishment
for counterfeiting · Define and punish crimes committed at sea · Establish federal courts · Create all bills for raising revenue (House only) · Levy and collect taxes, duties. · Pay all debts · Organize and arm the state militias · Exercise exclusive jurisdiction over the District of Columbia. · Establish post offices and postal roads · Create bankruptcy laws · Regulate patents and copyrights · Assemble at least once in every year on the first Monday in December · Establish times for elections · Discipline it's own members · Oversee all federal property and possessions (what few there should
be) · Fill a vacancy in the Presidency in cases of death or inability · Receive electoral votes for the Presidency · Keep and publish a journal of its proceedings · Conduct a census every ten years

As you can see, these vested powers range
from the mundane, such as writing a Congressional journal, on up to the big
ones like raising and regulating an army, declaring wars and approving
treaties.From the level of detail
written into these defined powers, we know that the framers of the Constitution
intended to leave very little to interpretation. These powers were to be the
entirety of the powers of Congress.

If any were tempted to step outside of these
specific limitations of power, the Constitution goes even further and mandates
that Congress pass only the laws that are "necessary and proper"
for executing the vested powers.

In other words, roughly 80% of the programs
for which the Congress provides funding are, in fact, illegal.

Check out the 2003 budget [Click Here] and
try to find even the slightest correlation between this budget and the powers
that have been granted to Congress.

How they could read the Constitution and come
up with a budget like this is a total mystery.

It is impossible to believe that those who
serve us in Congress do not understand the Constitutional limitations that have
been placed on their power. Since they ignore those limitations with impunity,
we can therefore conclude that the vast majority of those who swore an oath to
defend the Constitution did so knowing full well they intended to break that
oath (and the law) on a daily basis.

People who break the law on such a massive
scale usually end up behind bars. But, since the politicians seem to be immune
from the laws you and I must obey, the only thing we can do is work to kick
every one of the offenders out of office.

Unfortunately, it will be quite a challenge
to replace the current group of lawbreakers with politicians who will be any
more likely to obey the law. (Any who could ever get elected, that is!) Nearly
a century of brainwashing by our government schools has left us with few who
understand and believe in the Constitutional principal of limited government.

One thing is for sure - if we continue to
send the same lawbreakers back to Washington year after year, the current downward spiral is only
going to get worse.

A "lesser of two evils" voting
trend has left us with a Congress that is packed full of dishonest and evil men
who are working tirelessly in their efforts to destroy our country. Since the
courts have long ago abandoned any pretense of defending the Constitution, we
are the only ones can bring some sanity back into our government.

There is no easy answer, but it has become
clear that the solution will not be found within the "two-party"
charade we call the Democratic and the Republican parties, which for all
practical purposes have merged into one. We need to try something different.

Daniel Webster was thinking a couple of hundred years ahead when he
said:

"I shall exercise every facility I
possess in asking to prevent the Constitution from being nullified, destroyed
or impaired: and even though I should see it fall, I will still, with voice feeble,
perhaps, but earnest as ever issued from human lips, and with fidelity and zeal
which nothing can extinguish … call on the people to come to its rescue."Daniel
Webster, 1782-1852

The hour is late. If ever there was a time
when our Constitution needed to be rescued, the time is now.

Dave Brownlow is
an engineer who has been designing and selling industrial automation control
systems since 1979. He lives in Clackamas OR with his wife Suzanne and their
four children. Active in the pro-life movement and conservative politics for
over 20 years, David ran for US Congress in the 3rd District of Oregon in 2002
on the Constitution Party ticket. He has announced his plans to run again in
2004.